Jim Tressel still has his job as Ohio State football coach, but now - along with the 2002
national championship and seven Big Ten championships - he also has a black mark by his name.

The school announced yesterday that the 11th-year coach will serve a two-game suspension at the
start of the 2011 season, will be fined $250,000 and must attend an NCAA rules compliance seminar
in the wake of what the school deemed "a major violation."

But OSU President E. Gordon Gee said there never was a thought of dismissing him for not
revealing e-mails last spring that possibly could have led to 2010 suspensions for some of his
players, even though Tressel's contract gave the university that right.

"Are you kidding?" Gee said when asked whether he considered dismissal. "I'm just hopeful the
coach doesn't dismiss me. His integrity and the body of his work is quite remarkable."

But as the news conference in the Jack Nicklaus Museum revealed, that integrity had been called
into question. It was learned in January that Tressel did not come forward regarding four e-mails
from an unnamed lawyer, who on April 2 linked two Ohio State players to Ed Rife, a Columbus
tattoo-parlor owner who was under federal investigation for serious criminal activity. The players
names were redacted in the e-mails OSU released yesterday.

The lawyer's April 2 e-mail, to which Tressel responded by saying "I will get on it ASAP" - did
not ask the coach for confidentiality. But in his second e-mail to Tressel - on April 16 - the
lawyer did ask for confidentiality. Tressel explained that he did not think he could, in good
faith, pass the information along to the OSU compliance office.

As he found out in the past two months, he should have.

"I am sincerely saddened by the fact I let some people down and didn't do things as well as I
possibly could," Tressel said.

The e-mails became known to the OSU compliance office in January as it put together its appeal
of the five-game suspensions the NCAA levied in December on quarterback Terrelle Pryor, running
back Daniel Herron, receiver DeVier Posey, left tackle Mike Adams and defensive end Solomon Thomas
for the start of the 2011 season. Reserve linebacker Jordan Whiting must sit out one game.

All six are being punished for their relationship with Rife, who during a time in 2009 bought
various pieces of signed memorabilia or awards from the players and/or let them exchange them for
free or discounted tattoos.

OSU athletic director Gene Smith made it clear that Tressel's transgression is being treated
separately from the players' case. But obviously there is a link.

Tressel did not come forth with the information he had received in April until the e-mails were
found in January.

"I learned I probably needed to go to the top legal counsel person at the university" for advice
when the e-mails first arrived, Tressel said. "Now I've learned that most certainly."

He indicated his motive wasn't simply to preserve the players on his team for what was
considered a promising 2010 season. The Buckeyes were No. 2 in the country in preseason polls and
eventually went 12-1, winning a share of a record-tying sixth-straight Big Ten title and beating
Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl.

"Quite honestly, I was scared," Tressel said, when asked for his first reaction to the e-mails.
He added, "The focus of mine was not to interfere" with what he was told was a federal
investigation.

In addition to informing Tressel about his players trading memorabilia to Rife for tattoos and
possibly money, the April 2 e-mail from the lawyer indicated that some of Rife's friends were in
drug trafficking and that Rife had witnessed a homicide involving one friend. It also indicates
that federal agents had been to Rife's home for alleged drug trafficking.

In an e-mail exchange on April 16, the lawyer again told Tressel that players were selling
championship rings and other items "for not that much." The lawyer expressed irritation that the
players would part with such memorabilia.

Tressel responded 97 minutes later, saying, "I hear you !! It is unbelievable !! " Tressel
closed by saying "keep me posted as to what I need to do if anything. I will keep pounding these
kids hoping they grow up ....jt."

When asked yesterday whether he thought at the time that his e-mail correspondence with the
lawyer eventually would be discovered, Tressel said, "Yeah, I did. I thought it would do so in the
hierarchy of things as they occurred" in the December investigation of the six players.

The university forwarded its findings to the NCAA yesterday, an action made necessary, Smith
said, when a Yahoo Sports story Monday revealed that Tressel had prior knowledge of his players'
dealings with Rife.

"No question we had a leak," Smith said. "We wanted to be as responsive as we could" to the
flood of media inquiries that followed. So Monday night, Smith said, "I asked the staff to speed up
the process."

The penalties imposed on Tressel, which included last night's public apology, still must be
approved by the NCAA. Indeed, it could seek more punitive measures, but Smith said the university
sought the services of the Compliance Group, a private advisory firm, for advice before settling on
the penalties that he thought hit "the sweet spot."

"But wherever we end up, at the end of day, Jim Tressel is our football coach," Smith said.

Gee concurred. He said he spent three hours in his home with Tressel discussing the matter and
asking him all manner of questions. Gee said he wanted to feel confident there was no other
"smoking gun" out there.

"I can tell you there is a great deal of grief in this man," Gee said. Then he went on to praise
Tressel for the good he has done off the field for student-athletes and the university, from
raising the team's grade-point average to fundraising work for the library renovation and the
medical center.

But Tressel said that as he addressed his players after their 6 a.m. workout yesterday to alert
them, he wasn't seeking sympathy. He said he left by paraphrasing a quote from former President
George W. Bush:

"The most pathetic thing is a leader who is looking for self-pity," Tressel said.